Harper Wilde Receives $2 Million in Funding To Boost The Warby Parker of Bras

Harper Wilde, the online bra startup founded in 2017, has just received $2 million in seed funding led by Charles River Ventures. The LA-based company aims to “take the B.S out of bra shopping” through its home try-on service à la Warby Parker, free shipping and free returns.

Co-founded by Jenna Kerner and Jane Fisher, who met at the Wharton School of Business, Harper Wilde offers a hassle-free answer to the overpriced and hyper-sexualized bra market — part of an estimated $8 billion lingerie industry with massive profit margins.

"We are surrounded by amazing women who earn six-figure salaries and wear designer dresses and fancy purses, and underneath it all is a 5-year-old bra with torn straps and an underwire poking through," said Co-founder Jane Fisher. "Bras are not something women necessarily enjoy shopping for."

Rejecting the frills and embellishments championed by its competitors, Harper Wilde offers just three products: The lightly-lined “Base,” the push-up “Boost” and the strapless “Flex”. All styles are priced at $35 per bra, and are available in a variety of shades to suit different skin tones.

Harper Wilde

Fisher and Kerner discovered that most women hated the process of bra shopping: going to a department store, having a sales associate poke and prod her, and spend a lot of money on an expensive garment — only to try it on at home and realize it doesn't look good under a different shirt. Similarly, online shoppers were dissatisfied with having to put down a hefty sum before having the chance to try on a bra.

Harper Wilde bridges these gaps by letting customers try on three bras for a seven-day period for free, once a year. "Bras lend themselves to the risk-free model of home try-on at no cost," said Fisher, adding that a typical Harper Wilde customer orders two sizes, before returning one and keeping the other.

With this injection of funding, the company plans to expand its staff and develop product extensions, while staying true to the simplicity of its offerings. "A big part of our mission is to empower all women and be an inclusive brand," said Fisher of the brand's plan to increase its size range to expand the number of customers it can serve. "While we want to maintain a simple option set, there are certainly some areas we can expand to serve even more women."

In an interview with WWD, Fisher said that more than 30% of buyers became repeat customers within five months. Techcrunch reports that Harper Wilde has seen 20 percent growth month over month since its launch just over a year ago.

Co-founders Jenna Kerner and Jane FisherHarper Wilde

The brand's name is a combination of Harper Lee and Laura Ingalls Wilder, women who represent the values of education and empowerment at the core of Harper Wilde. A portion of each sale is donated to The Girls Project, an organization dedicated to providing girls around the world with access to education. The company’s social impact initiatives, humorously dubbed #LiftUpTheLadies, also extend to its production. Fisher and Kerner selected a manufacturer that provides women with career advancement programs and touts a sustainable supply chain to produce their bras.

"We got to where we are today thanks to our incredible education, and globally, girls have far less access to education compared to boys," said Fisher. "It's not about selling bras at the end of the day, it's about empowering the next generation of leading women. It felt important 3 years ago, and it feels even more important today."